Once Sweet as Eden

 Once Sweet as Eden

(“So Josiah removed all detestable idols from the entire land…” 2 Chronicles 34:33a)

When you pack your belts with bullets and
conceal your violence with bibles, amendments
and squandered chances to layer the generations
with passionate dance,

The images once sweet as Eden
become blurs of unlucky happenstance.

I will still walk with you,
but leave your fantasies in the yard.
What caliber is your copper
and iron,
what are the shredded shrieks,
the frantic aftermaths
of your crass obeisance to
deafen the voices that cry from the land?

Notice the skyline, the upward arc of grass leaves
and tree branches. Notice the poppies gilding the
untended slopes dotted with occasional daisies.

Don’t forget the warm mud, or the voice of Abel.
The masquerades of oblation and
retreads of weariness have blistered too many
old tires rolling through the desert
on old station wagons between cacti and dunes.
We need to master our AM playlists again,
we need to let the sanity come full circle where
heart, prayer, peace and human touch meet.

When you pack your trunks with lunches and
open your car doors with sandwiches, repentance
will be complete. Every layer of humanity will
find the words

To sing the songs of redemption again.